Legend
< Henry Slade in Australia (continued from page 8-157) >
as evidence that spirits were about. We had brought with us two new slates—one a small folding-slate, the other an ordinary child’s slate. The slates were marked, so that they could not be changed. On the face of the slate was placed a small piece of slate pencil, about the size of a grain of wheat. The slate was then placed under the table, and there held by Mr. Slade with his right hand, his left being on the table, touching ours. Soon after, the sound as of a pencil writing on a slate was heard, and on the slate being produced an indistinct written message was found upon it. We were informed that the writing would improve, and subsequent messages, of which there were several, were somewhat more legible. Mr. Slade then handed the slate to us to hold, but no writing was effected on it, and the mysterious power intimated, on another slate, held by the medium, that it could not write for us. Meanwhile, Mr. Slade informed us of the wonderful feats occasionally performed in his presence, keeping up what sceptics irreverently term ‘conjurers’ patter.’ The one nearest to Mr. Slade then held the slate in his right hand under the table; but there was no writing, though, on one occasion, the slate was jerked in a violent manner from the table. A piece of pencil was next placed in the folded slate, the covers of which were closed by the medium, and the slate placed on the shoulder of the person sitting next to Mr. Slade. A sound as of writing was heard, and on opening the slate a few words, in answer to a query by the medium, were found written. A small slate was placed under the table, Mr. Slade holding it in his right hand, and the person sitting next to him pressing it close to the under side of the table with his left hand; sounds of writing were again heard, and on the slate being produced, a message was written upon it. The chair of the person next to Mr. Slade was suddenly and violently pushed back a few inches, and, so far ns any manifestations to us were concerned, they were invariably vouchsafed to the one sitting close to the medium; whether it was because of his proximity, or in consequence of his greater disposition to believe and praise, rather than to sneer or scoff, neither of us has yet determined.
“A small mark was then made on the slate, and the piece of pencil placed on this mark. A full-sized wooden pencil was then laid on the slate, which was held under the table in one hand by Dr. Slade. In a few seconds the large pencil was seen flying across the room, and on the slate being produced, the small pencil was found on the mark where it had been placed, the inference being that it was impossible for Mr. Slade to have thrown the other pencil without disturbing the smaller one, which, by the way, does not follow.
“One of us asked if the power would not move the pencil slowly, so that we might see it moving about the room; and although the medium informed us that this was sometimes done, the pencil moving so slowly that it might be caught in the hand, no such convincing proof of mysterious power was afforded us. At some small distance away was an ordinary toilet table, and we were told that the power occasionally levitated articles of furniture. We asked that this table might be moved. Mr. Slade then asked the power if this could be done, and placed the slate under the table with the small piece of pencil on it for an answer. On being produced, the words, ‘We will do all we can,’ were found written on the face of it. The table was not moved, nor was the pencil levitated slowly, as requested. We were, however, informed that these manifestations would be given on some future occasion, as the power increased with repeated sittings. We frankly admitted that we were unbelievers, and asked that some unmistakable demonstration of mysterious power should be granted to us, but it came not.
“Once, on raising our hands slowly together, the table rose a few inches from the ground, remained poised for a second or two, and then descended suddenly. During the time the table was being moved, the person sitting next to Mr. Slade kept his foot on the medium’s feet, and he declares that he did not feel them move. So ended the first séance.
“Looking at the conditions to ascertain if one of us would be permitted to sit away from the table, we found it distinctly set out that all present must join hands. Shortly after being seated at the table raps were heard, and Mr. Slade informed us that the force was strong. Soon after, the table behind, and at some distance from the medium, was thrown over with great force. Very little writing was done, the power not being propitious. Both of us again held the slate, but were, ns before, informed on a slate held by Mr. Slade that no writing could be done for us. The chair close to one of us, and at a considerable distance from the medium, quite beyond the reach of his feet or hands, now turned suddenly over. We asked to have the gymnastic movement repeated, and though the power, as at the previous sitting, promised to do all that he, she, or it could, the chair was not again moved. Shortly after, a slate held by Mr. Slade under the table seemed to dart suddenly forward. The slate, indeed, often did this, the medium declaring that it was pulled by some invisible power, and that he could not retain it. On the present occasion, the slate moved with great violence, but did not leave Mr. Slade’s hands. A loud crash was heard, and the slate, on being again produced, was found with a large hole punched in its centre. An accordion was now produced and placed under the table, and while waiting for some music, celestial or infernal—it mattered not which—Mr. Slade’s cane suddenly fell into the room from an opposite corner to that at which he was sitting. The medium had placed his hat, coat, and cane in a corner of the room, from which the cane appeared to have travelled unbidden, and in a most demonstrative manner. Altogether, the spirits on this occasion were boisterous in their manifestations. The force was unmistakably strong, and the medium appeared from time to time much agitated. A bell was now placed on the floor under the table. Mr. Slade sat sideways, one foot away from the table, and on the other one of us placed his foot. The power had promised us to play the accordion, but did not keep bis word. While the instrument was under the table" the sliding top was wrenched off and jerked across the room. Some few notes were touched, but no tune was played. The bell here suddenly made its appearance, coming up between Mr. Slade and the person who sat next to him, striking the latter on the shoulder, and falling on the table. The small table again turned turtle, and the medium appeared greatly frightened and distressed. Here the seance ended, Mr. Slade inviting each of us to drop in some evening, when he would be more at liberty than in the daytime, and when he believed we should witness the manifestations which we so much desired. With respect to the levitating of the furniture, Mr. Slade believes that can be accounted for by the electricity engendered in the atmosphere, but the writing lie declares to be directed by some higher intelligence. He appears to regard it as his greatest feat, and it certainly is marvellous.”
The Herald then adds another of its reports, describing a seance.
Traces of Low in the Appearances of Spirits Embodied and Unembodied
The chief value of these meetings has always seemed to me to be that they afford a regular and simple means of interchange of thought and experience for those who are interested in a common pursuit. Here we may bring our ideas, our experiences, our difficulties, and our theories, with the certainty that they will meet with patient attention and careful sifting. As an educational process this is simply necessary.
At the present moment it is simply invaluable. And this view it is that influences me in doing what I can to keep up the interest in these meetings. We have come to a crisis in the public—mind, not at all in the domestic or private— development of Spiritualism. That has come to pass which they, whose eyes have been open to the tendency of events, have seen to be inevitable.
A constant repetition of phenomena, unexplained by a coherent philosophy; the reiterated discovery of fraud; the wide prevalence of folly; the frequent suggestion of untruth, have shaken the popular mind. Phenomenal Spiritualism does not satisfy; and there has gone up, there is going up all round us, a cry, which to me is one of most pathetic earnestness, for something that shall satisfy the inner yearning that cannot feed on these husks.
Phenomenal Spiritualism not only does not satisfy this craving, it introduces a gradually-increasing element of uncertainty and perplexity into the mind. The border-land bet ween the world of matter, and that to which the gates that are set ajar give access, is a land of fantasy: a land where human judgment finds itself without a standard to which it can always appeal; a land where the canons of human criticism are little worth, and where human experience ransacks the past in vain for precedents, and finds (as George Macdonald puts it in David Elginbrod) that “verisimilitude is no essential element of truth.”
The mental attitude engendered by this introduction to a new order of things is one of insecurity. The mind was never yet constructed, I believe, which (being healthy and sound) can continue to observe a number of phenomena without seeking to discover the law that governs them. The time comes to all of us—to some later than to others—when we must strive after this law. Its discovery, however, is no easy matter.
For, first, it is not easy to know what is a fact—to differentiate the true from the false when we have no known standard, and when what seems true shades so imperceptibly into what seems false. It is not easy, when one has not the key, to unlock the secrets that accumulate around us, and cause bewilderment and anxiety by the very consciousness that we have in us that we can’t unlock them. It is not easy, in many cases, to get face to face with the intelligent operator, and one feels rather as if one were the victim in a game of spiritual blind man’s buff.
Then fraud and trick and buffoonery step in to complicate matters still more, and to make the phenomena (which in their proper place, as the signs that testify to the underlying philosophy, are beautiful and true) mean, and contemptible, and puerile, and ludicrous, by divesting them of their true significance, and linking them with the accidents of imposture and deceit.
And so it has come to pass that those who have devoted most time and pains to the subject have reached a point— whether spirit-guided I do not presume to say—where they <... continues on page 8-159 >
* A paper read before the British National Association of Spiritualists at lust Monday’s Fortnightly Discussion Meeting, February 17th, 1879.
Editor's notes
- ↑ Traces of Low in the Appearances of Spirits Embodied and Unembodied by Moses, W. Stainton, London Spiritualist, No. 339, February 21, 1879, pp. 92-4
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 339, February 21, 1879, pp. 92-4